IN BRIEF/CHINA

2 Die, 9 Missing as Storms Hit North, South

A tropical storm killed two people when it roared into southern China, and floods in the industrial northeast destroyed hundreds of houses and left nine people missing, state media reported.

Tropical storm Sanvu swept ashore in China's south coastal province of Guangdong on Saturday, bringing down trees and billboards and sending telephone boxes flying. The heaviest rain of the year inundated Liaoning province in the northeast.

Two pedestrians were killed in Guangdong when a wall at a construction site collapsed, the China Daily reported. Flooding was reported in 116 towns in the northeast, destroying more than 2,500 houses, toppling bridges and damaging crops, the official New China News Agency said.